PSYC 1010 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Psychophysics, Retina, Detection Theory

• School: York University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 1010
• Professor: Rebecca Jubis

Document Summary

Sensation: the process whereby our sensory organs gather info from the outside world: the stimulation of the sensory organs. Perception: the process whereby the brain organizes and interprets these sensations so that they have meaning. Psychophysics: the study of how physical stimuli are translated into psychological experience: how much of a stimulus is necessary for you to detect it, absolute threshold. The point at which a person can detect the lowest intensity of light, 50% of the time: difference threshold (just-noticeable difference or jnd) The smallest difference in stimulation needed to discriminate one stimulus from another, 50% of the time. Weber"s law: people are able to perceive small changes if the magnitude of the reference stimulus is small, but as that magnitude increases, a greater change is necessary before we can perceive the differences.